CVE-2023-20900

A malicious actor that has been granted Guest Operation Privileges https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/8.0/vsphere-security/GUID-6A952214-0E5E-4CCF-9D2A-90948FF643EC.html  in a target virtual machine may be able to elevate their privileges if that target virtual machine has been assigned a more privileged Guest Alias https://vdc-download.vmware.com/vmwb-repository/dcr-public/d1902b0e-d479-46bf-8ac9-cee0e31e8ec0/07ce8dbd-db48-4261-9b8f-c6d3ad8ba472/vim.vm.guest.AliasManager.html .

Published: 2023-08-31 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-20900 is rated Moderate Risk (51.1/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.19%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-20900

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.81% 1.19% +0.39%
2 2026-04-19 0.60% 0.81% +0.21%
3 2026-02-28 — 0.60% —

Full EPSS history (20 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-20900

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.1 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:A)
Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.2 5.9 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:A)
Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.6 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-20900

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-20900

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-20900: 1 source package rows (open-vm-tools); 6 state rows across 6 repos (3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 6, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-20900
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-20900 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (open-vm-tools), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-20900
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-20900
suse high CVE-2023-20900 severity important: SUSE including 75 source package names (2.0.2-4.2.20:libvmtools0-12.3.0-150300.37.1, 2.0.2-4.2.20:open-vm-tools-12.3.0-150300.37.1, …), 205 product×package rows across 53 product lines (Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.2, Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.3, … (53 product lines)): Fixed 205. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-20900/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-20900 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (open-vm-tools), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 7, not-affected 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-20900

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-20900

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
vmware tools >= 10.3.0, < 12.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:vmware:tools:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
vmware tools >= 10.3.0, < 10.3.26 cpe:2.3:a:vmware:tools:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
vmware open_vm_tools >= 10.3.0, < 12.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:vmware:open_vm_tools:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 37 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 38 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:38:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 39 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:39:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:12.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp ontap_select_deploy_administration_utility — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:ontap_select_deploy_administration_utility:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-20900

URL Tags
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/08/31/1 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/10/27/1 Mailing List Patch
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/10/msg00000.html Mailing List
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/NVKQ6Y2JFJRWPFOZUOTFO3H27BK5GGOG/ Mailing List
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/TJNJMD67QIT6LXLKWSHFM47DCLRSMT6W/ Mailing List
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/ZJM6HDRQYS74JA7YNKQBFH2XSZ52HEWH/ Mailing List
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20231013-0002/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5493 Third Party Advisory
https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2023-0019.html Patch Vendor Advisory
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